


Book Nook

by Antiloquist



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Awkward Dates, M/M, Male Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Not a Date but also Yes a Date, Pining, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22689310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antiloquist/pseuds/Antiloquist
Summary: Everyone who knows the Warrior well has told Moren he isn't much of a reader. So why is it then that he shows up every week at the same time like clockwork to discuss a tome the librarian recommended him?
Relationships: Warrior of Light/Moren (Final Fantasy XIV)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30
Collections: Valentine's Fic Exchange 2020





	Book Nook

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silly_bone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silly_bone/gifts).



> For the Valentine's fic exchange at the [book club!](https://discord.gg/hPbnJzu) Come join the mayhem if you want. We sure do love to shout about this hell game.

The timepiece against the wall ticked quietly, winding down slowly towards the next bell. Moren paced the upper platform of the Cabinet of Curiosities, book clutched tightly in his arms. It wasn’t time yet, was it? Or was it past time? He didn’t want to look at the clock lest it make him more anxious than he already was.

The Warrior would show up, right? The two of them always met at this time on this day, once a week. Their topic of discussion? Whatever tome Moren had recommended to the Warrior the week previous. Though no slouch in strength, the Warrior possessed a sharp mind to match; he snapped up and devoured everything Moren had recommended to him. He always came back to the Cabinet, brimming with questions and… for lack of a better word, _curiosity_. Moren, ever the lover of literature, had been entranced immediately.

Would he ever tell the other man, however? Perhaps. Eventually. Maybe. Probably not. He was more than content to engage in these weekly discussions. Besides, would the esteemed Warrior of Darkness even have time for him?

“Moren!”

Apparently so.

Moren tried not to look as overly excited as he felt as the Warrior bounded the last set of steps and fixed Moren with a huge grin. In his arms was another copy of the same tome that Moren himself held.

“Ah, h-hello. You’re just on time.”

“I am? Good! I was so worried I was going to be late.” The Warrior smiles sheepishly at the other man, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Qeshi-Rae cornered me on my way over and, well… she really does love to talk. Long story short, looks like I’m headed out to Il Mheg once I’m done here.”

Moren frowned. “She’s not making you gather droppings again, is she?” He made a face at the memory; he’d certainly appreciated the Warrior’s attempt to keep their weekly appointment, but… perhaps he could have gone to the showers at the Pendants first?

The Warrior laughed. “No, not this time. She’s after plant scraps this time. A great deal more pleasant-smelling, I’m sure.”

“You don’t have to do everything she tells you, you know…” Moren gestures for the Warrior to set at a table he’d prepared with tea and snacks. Was this too much? Maybe.

“Better I go over there than her, at least there. Last thing I want is her getting turned into a leafman. Oh, you remembered my favorite!”

Moren smiled. “Of course. Y-you must be hungry after all that, er… adventuring you do.” Perhaps he was a bit clueless on what the daily life of an adventurer entailed, much preferring his books and quills to weapons and armor.

If the Warrior took offense at his sweeping statement, he didn’t indicate so. Instead, he chuckled. “No rest for the weary.” He took a deep sip of tea. “Barely had enough time to finish this.” He tapped his fingers against the cover.

This week’s book was a collection of Norvrandtian myths and faerie tales; typical bedtime stories for the youth of this land, but entirely new fare to the Warrior. It was truly as if the man was from another world entirely. If someone had told him such a concept was fact before the day the Warrior and his strange companions strolled into the Crystarium, he would have thought it madness.

Moren longed to know more of the place from whence the Warrior came. The researcher in him wanted to scrawl down every last detail offered. But there was more than just curiosity regarding parts unknown that drove his interest in the Warrior. It was his smile, so bright that even the gloomiest day was no match. It was his heart, true and kind, giving all for even the most obscure cause. He’d seen how weary his dear Warrior friend had grown in the later days of his crusade against the Light. Oh, how Moren had longed to take some of the burden off the other man’s shoulders, but what could a bookworm like him have even offered.

“Moren?” The Warrior’s gentle voice broke Moren out of his reverie.

“Hm?” the other man asked, blinking and shaking his head slightly.

The Warrior chuckled again, a nice and light sound that never failed to make Moren’s heart clench in his chest. “You were staring off into the aether. For a moment it even looked like…” he shook his head. “Anyroad, we should get down to business.” He cracked open the book and grinned.

Moren returned the smile with a shy one of his own. “Do tell me, which one was your favorite?”

The Warrior’s eyes lit up as he launched into a detailed explanation of his favorites and how he was pleased to be able to make connections between some of the stories and the sights he had seen on his journeys throughout the land. The more things changed, he surmised, the more they stayed the same.

Moren could listen to the Warrior talk for hours. Not only was his voice easy on the ears, but the other man offered such _insight_ on things. Some of his observations, Moren realized, could only come from someone who’d not grown up in Norvrandt. Some things that Moren had taken for granted as common knowledge left naught but a blank stare on the Warrior’s face.

In return, however, the Warrior dropped little tidbits here and there about the mysterious land he called home. With his words, the Warrior painted pictures of a land far larger than Norvrandt, where day and night had been taken for granted. It was a world that had seen disaster seven times over and endured, he was told. Even if it wasn’t true, it was fascinating. And if it _were_ true… well, that would explain much about the Exarch and his mysterious friends, the Warrior included.

And in the middle of it all, there was just the most endearing light the Warrior would get in his eyes when he spoke of something he was passionate about. Moren wondered if he oft looked the same when he spoke of his literary interests. Probably not quite, he surmised; no one could do endearing like the Warrior could. It just made Moren want to ask him more questions about the books he lent out each week. Some of these titles he knew in and out but he would gladly play dumb if it meant getting to see the Warrior’s face light up just so.

“So what do you think?” the Warrior posited.

Moren blinked. Oh, he really should have been listening. But if it was anything like the Warrior’s usual tangents, it was surely brilliant!

“Ah, I quite like your take on these. I’ll admit, I’m curious what sort of faerie tales there are in your homeland.”

The Warrior thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t see the harm in bringing over a few fiction titles. I’ll see what I can have Feo Ul grab for me.”

The look on Moren’s face matched the usual enthusiasm the Warrior had about their shared literary pursuits. “Truly?”

“Of course. Though, it goes without saying that the origin of them should be kept in the dark to most. They’d surely think us mad, telling them stories of another world entirely.”

Moren nodded. “How is… everything with that, anyway?” He’d heard bits and pieces about how the grand majority of the Exarch’s friends were wholly and truly stranded in this realm, unable to return from whence they came.

“Well, Beq Lugg has been quite the boon in getting us closer to a solution. However… we’ve yet to find the answer.”

Oh, right: Beq Lugg. Moren had seen the Nu Mou skittering about the Cabinet poring thought tomes, but every time he inquired as to if they needed help, they simply shook their head. 

“I’m sorry to hear.”

The Warrior shook his head. “Don’t be. I’ve a feeling we will get there sooner rather than later. And some days I feel as if my friends will be loath to depart. They’ve all made their lives here…”

“And what of you?”

“Hm?” The Warrior arched an eyebrow.

Moren cleared his throat, startled at his own boldness. “Do you feel at all at home here with us?”

After a moment of thought, the Warrior finally shrugged. “No less than any other place, I suppose.”

Moren’s face fell. “Ah…”

“But if I were to name the place I liked the most in Norvrandt… it would be this very building here.”

“Y-you mean-“

The Warrior laughed. “Yes, the Cabinet. I’ll confess, I wasn’t much of a reader before I came here, but there was something about a certain librarian…”

Moren’s heart leapt to his throat. Surely he didn’t actually mean…

A moment of silence passed, and then another.

“You look like a doe in the lantern light. Do forgive me if I’ve overstepped.” The Warrior made a move to stand.

“N-no!” Moren exclaimed, the outburst stopping the Warrior in his tracks. He cleared his throat. “I-I mean, you haven’t overstepped, I just never thought even in my wildest dreams that-“

The Warrior chuckled softly again. “Not even with our weekly dates?”

“Dates?” Another moment passed as everything suddenly made more sense to Moren; the Warrior’s insistence on his own punctuality, the fact that he (almost) always seemed freshly washed before arriving, the soft looks the other man had given him from across the table that he was _certain_ he’d only imagined.

“I’ve always interpreted them as dates.” There was an easy grin on the Warrior’s face, a flush on his cheeks. “But if they weren’t, then I will happily stand corrected.”

“Th-they could be, if you wanted them to…” Moren said quietly, face flushed to match. “But I would - i-if you aren’t opposed to it, of course - I would like to go _out_ on a date with you.”

There, he’d said it, the thing he’d been both dreaming and dreading coming to light. To his delightful surprise, the Warrior grinned brighter than Moren had ever seen.

“Name the time and place.” The Warrior reached across the table and gingerly took one of Moren’s hands in his, book forgotten by the side.

Maybe this wasn’t so hopeless after all.


End file.
